Dandelion Wishes
by LadyVerve
Summary: There once was a Great and Terrible Demon Lord and a humble, if a bit temperamental, miko that had never been meant to love him. This is the story of how might does not always make right, but it can sometimes turn left. It is their story. AU/AR


Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all respective characters are the creation and property of Rumiko Takahashi. I simply bow my head to her genius and play in the sand.

Dandelion Wishes - Chapter One

"What are you doing?"

"Huh?" Fingers stilled their dizzying motion. The tortured dandelion, remaining patches of white poof drooping with relief, tilted haphazardly against dark lashes shielding too-blue-to-be-true eyes as they glanced into the irritated amber gaze of the questioner. Doing? What _had_ she been doing?

"What," the rather large male enunciated with an excruciatingly proper degree of derision for her rudeness, "are you doing?"

Having been startled out of her blissful reverie, Kagome wasn't impressed with his attitude. It wasn't as if he was entitled to know her every thought. Besides, she hadn't been preoccupied with anything interesting except to herself and her future as a student at the school. "I was just thinking, Lord."

"Thinking."

"Yes, Lord." Silence. That sweet utopia of peaceful thoughts and puppy dreams did not appeal to all persons. Clearly not him, Kagome silently grumbled when the youkai lord flicked a claw-tipped finger and decapitated the remainder of the poor, beleaguered dandelion she had been twirling outside at lunch as she contemplated the wish she would make before blowing the seeds all over creation. She wondered if the ends of a few of her lashes floated away on the edge of his irritation as well. However … He did appear to be rather put out with her. A degree of caution was called for, even if her own temper was a bit short today.

"I do not ask questions for the sake of your pleasure." He shifted; the soft silks of his sleeves were adjusted back to allow for greater movement and the vague hint of ginger settled about the close quarters of the hall they occupied. The pungently bitter tang of dandelion fluids did not pair well with the spice.

Kagome blew out the breath she hadn't known she was holding. "I'm sorry, Lord," she apologized with a conciliatory tone she genuinely felt. Though she had made a great many friends in the past few years, most of whom that had at one time or another desired nothing more than to kill her, he was not one of them. Reckless self-endangerment, for the most part, had been trained out of her by the memories of too many close calls with fellows of this demon's mercurial temperament. "What I had been thinking wasn't important. Silly girl thoughts. I assumed you wouldn't care to know them, Lord."

He dismissed the apology and explanation with a narrow glare. "You were thinking on more than dresses and boys." His ward, Rin, was a silly child that had yet to mature beyond spontaneous fits of laughter and exuberant twirls made in the snowfall. Rin knew how to think like a silly girl. Despite a past with abusive parents and a hometown that hadn't cared enough to do something about them, Rin remained remarkably innocent in both demeanor and candor of disposition. The girl seated before him on the pine bench in the narrow hallway outside the office was not Rin. When he thought upon it, the comparison was rather revealing of the whole notion of nature versus nurture a great many of the human psychologists had attempted to befuddle him with upon Rin's adoption into his father's House. An absentee father, but a loving mother, brother and grandfather more than capable of making up for it, had filled the human girl's youthful days with chores, holidays, and everything in between. Had it not been for the misfortune of fate, she would have never been seated where she was if biology had ruled supreme in her upbringing.

No, she was not a silly girl. A silly miko, perhaps. Silly enough to have carried in a flower to a meeting with the head of the school she currently attended without knowing it, certainly. Not even the prestige of the Kiyoshinoedo House could grant Rin access to The Tokyo Academy. True spiritual strength, either in its' human or youkai form, was necessary. All humans and demons were endowed with a small portion. It was a right of birth, the only true separation from the non-sentient. Only those gifted with a surplus of spiritual power, a well-spring to be drawn from as easily as a child draws first breath, were enrolled at the Academy. And the silly miko had more than any other known human to have ever walked this earth aside from the Great Miko. Enough power that even he, with all his responsibilities, had taken the time to give the miko a second look upon her Reveal, to ascertain the degree of threat she could hold to those within his father's House.

The miko's Reveal had sent shock waves through the youkai community. She had just turned fifteen, and as was tradition with those who appeared to hold spiritual power as evidenced by sparks shed during childhood as a result of short scares or strong emotions, she had endured the testing by youkai masters practiced in such matters before a mixed panel of human and youkai educators from the Academy. Once released through the short process of unfolding the girl's potential by stimulation with youkai power, the miko's power had burst from her in a lava flow of monumental proportions that had nearly permanently seared the youkai portion of the panel's retinas. In the past, at most a few sparks would shoot out in defense or a short flare would sputter. But the miko in front of him had been something entirely different. Something special.

"Lord, I really wasn't thinking about anything important. I was just lost in thought. That happens sometimes." Kagome twirled a loose strand of onyx hair about a dainty pointer finger. Her shoulders drooped as she considered the possible reasons she had been called to the office. She hadn't done anything to warrant the attention of the Headmistress, had she? The whole Kouga incident had been over a year ago and was firmly in the past, wasn't it? Sure, it had taken the ornery wolf demon months to grow back the hair she had inadvertently singed off his tail, but he had deserved it! Even Headmistress Ito had said so! Kagome's shoulders slumped lower, tenting the uniform's vest to further insult her slightly-less-than-impressive bosom. It could have been Hiten. The creep had always hated her since she told her childhood friend, Ayumi, that he was bad news after a chance encounter outside the neighborhood teashop had earned the fulsomely curvaceous girl an invitation to dinner and a movie. Hiten was known for favoring human girls since they could be treated callously without repercussion in most cases. Hunter daughters, on the other hand, even demons treated respectfully. But Ayumi was definitely not a Hunter's daughter.

Urggh! She really hated not knowing if she was in trouble, and if so, for what. How could she manage to find a suitable excuse beforehand? She had never been good at impromptu performances. The demon in front of her wasn't helping matters, either. He kept alternating between trying to stare directly into her brain as if the carefree strands of her inky-blank bangs were pasted to nothing more than glass and playing with the hem of his sleeves. Lord Sesshomaru on a good day was not someone with whom she ever wanted to hold conversation. On a day like today, with her mind out of sorts and his apparent and very unusual, now that she thought about it, restlessness, did not help matters any.

Of six feet and a few shy inches more, give or take, endowed with a willowy frame that was almost effeminate were it not for the distinct lack of hips, and blessed with a ridiculous amount of the most awe-inspiringly silver hair anyone, demon or human had ever laid eyes upon, Lord Sesshomaru was not a being to dismiss with ease. He knew it, too. Fastidious to a fault, he was always dressed to the nines in the uniform of his station: a black pant suit made of silk and trimmed with the colors and badge of father's House, as all youkai adorned themselves with. It served to distinguish the higher youkai from the lower stations. Humans might not appreciate the necessity, but Kagome always fancied the idea that the youkai sitting on a lower level of spiritual strength were grateful for the forewarning should they cross paths with a Noble or someone belonging to a Noble's House. Given the laissez-faire attitude human courts maintain with youkai on youkai crime and the typical demonic understanding that might doesn't just make right, it can turn left if it wanted too … Kagome shuddered. As a miko she knew what youkai were capable of firsthand. Protected by the barest of slivers of compassion the elder demons had developed for the fledgling race known as humans, guarded by the offspring of said elders, and even educated in the means of self-defense by the most learned of their kind, Kagome knew humanity owed a lot to youkai in general. That did not mean she wasn't aware of what went on behind the scenes. Of what could happen should that delicate balance between tolerance and subjugation be tipped.

"Hn." He would let it go. For now. He had been curious merely as a professional courtesy. Whatever thoughts she had been immersed in had caused the well-spring of her spiritual power to rise to the surface, slightly singing the edge of his demonic senses. Not pleasant, but not unbearable. Not for him, at least. He almost wished Jaken had been present. The malformed imp deserved a stiff scare for the latest attempt to leave Rin with a pair of dream-stealing bat youkai after she had awakened the Kiyoshinoedo House with a night terror. The child had simply ingested too many sweets before going to bed. Had she not been returned from the bats without a scratch Jaken would have been the recipient of a few night terrors of his own.

Later, however, the miko would answer to him. He was High Constable of Tokyo, the city with the highest density youkai population in the world. If there was something of a threat in the vicinity he would know about it. If he did not, then he would rectify the situation. For the third time in the past hour, he readjusted the crimson trim of the offending sleeve. Youkai did not grow much passed their youth, but he had hit a power surge and the subsequent growth had added an inch or so to his arm span. He refused to accept anything less than the best in all aspects of life, so he was forced to wait for the harvest of plum silk to have a new wardrobe prepared for his station. It was all relative, he reassured himself. Had he known adoption of a child into his personal wing of the Kiyoshinoedo House would have such results he supposed he might not had been as hesitant to accept the toothless reminder of the vestiges of his merciful instinct. He still did not understand what had prompted him to take her in. He supposed he would never comprehend the alien emotion that had seen his hand reach for the rusted handle of the broken umbrella a black eye and a pair of bare feet on a cold day offered to share with him as he waited in the rain for Jaken, the perpetually late vassal, to bring his car around. As it was, Rin had been claimed and his paternal instinct had responded with a suitably impressive addition of power. As well as a youkai could for a human child, he did acknowledge his responsibility for the small girl beyond what she could do for him and would provide for her welfare. It was a fair trade.

The door to the office slid open. The Headmistress, Kagura Ito, stepped aside to allow the tall youkai youth who had been in closed conference with her for the passed hour in reference to a food fight in the commons to step into the hallway. The young male bowed low to Lord Sesshomaru before leaving to return to class.

"Lord Sesshomaru." The statuesque brunette acknowledged the high-ranking Noble by the use of his forename as was tradition with all Nobles of self-earned title. All children of youkai Nobles carried their father's name until distinguished by the Youkai Circle for services to society with a forename. The practice served to distinguish from the Head of the House and their offspring of notable individual power. Upon the death of the Head, the Named Heir took the use of the surname as his permanent moniker as well as the wealth and responsibilities. Should the Head pass without a Named Heir, the lands and holdings passed into the hands of the Youkai Circle for their disposal. Noble children without a forename were forever beholden to their sire for honor, opportunities to earn the means of recognition, even the ability to marry and have children of their own since it would be the Head's responsibility to arrange such matters. It was by this that Noble children were kept hungrily on the path to power, since it was the only way through which they could someday found their own House, even if it would never be a Noble House but a Common one, while breeding loyalty to their sire. As the first born son of Kiyoshinoedo, Sesshoumaru had earned his forename by aiding his father in service to Japan and had therefore become the Named Heir to his father's House. Once Lord Kiyoshinoedo died, Sesshoumaru would take his father's name, forsaking the name he had earned in favor of assuming the responsibilities of the Kiyoshinoedo House in full.

The Youkai Circle had chosen well for his name, Kagura thought with a tight smile. She warmed slightly as she turned to the young miko. "Higurashi. Please come in." The Headmistress of the most highly-regarded Academy in Japan, and, just perhaps, the eastern world, waved the pair inside the well-appointed office with a wave of bright crimson nails and a heady cloud of expensive, utterly feminine perfume.

"I suppose you are both wondering why you have been called here, today," Ito began once they claimed the velvet-cushioned seats before the heavy oak desk. She took her time walking from the door after securing it with a short spell and a kiss to the small, blue feather she kept in the hidden breast pocket of the elaborate kimono she chose to wear to work so to distinguish herself from the riffraff which sometimes chanced to come into power. The feather would ensure the spoken words stayed within the room. Without a sound she perched upon the leather chair behind the desk, back as straight as a pole, and regarded the handsome youkai she had once fancied and the student miko she was going to betray. There were days when she wondered if it was better to die or to live with the level of hatred she held for herself. It did not matter, she supposed. Death was not her choice.

He knew Kagura had been the one to call them. Given their past relationship, or what might have once come close to constituti ng something similar to mutual attraction based upon respect for shared power and perhaps a bit of a purely chemical reaction, Sesshomaru had kept in touch with Kagura's whereabouts. He had not been surprised to learn of her appointment to the position of Headmistress despite her position as second born to the Common Ito House. She had always been obsessed with controlling her surroundings and those within them. The politics of Academy life suited a mind bent toward covert manipulation and power grasping through schemes rather than overt power moves. In fact, it had been that respectably wily characteristic that had ensured the possibilities between them had never been explored. He could not trust her. While he did not fear her, the idea of taking a female his instinct refused to turn a back on disallowed further involvement. He watched her carefully but with the nonchalant grace he had perfected after a century of watching his father deal with the squabbling masses always scrambling to gain Kiyoshinoedo's attention.

"Headmistress," Kagome began, as always, eager to get to the point rather than wiggle further on the hook, "is something wrong?" She hoped not! She hadn't known Lord Sesshomaru and herself would be called in together. Her mind was still reeling from the shock. It had been bad enough to sit in the hall together.

Kagura gave the shorter slip of a girl a tight smile. She knew the miko better than the miko knew herself. "You have acquitted yourself well this semester, Higurashi." A hint of the previous troubles twinkled in the Headmistress' doe-brown eyes. "Unfortunately," Kagura let the appropriate amount of exasperation bleed into her tone, "this matter concerns the future and not the past. I have been made aware of a plot to assassinate Lord Kiyoshinoedo. I assumed it to be of importance to the both of you."

Sesshomaru felt his ire rise at the deliberate baiting. "Several attempts have been made on my father's life. All have failed. Our security measures have no parallel, Kagura. Of what business is my father's House to you or," he paused to spear the miko with a hard glance, "this person?"

"Of what business, Sesshomaru?" Kagura smiled fully for the first time since the meeting began when he glared at the lack of title to his name. Prickly dog as always. "As the one designated to be the end of Kiyoshinoedo, Higurashi is the whole point to this little visit."

Kagome blinked rapidly. What? "What?"

A soft snort met her disbelief. "You are mistaken, Ito. The miko is powerful. Every youkai within a five-mile radius can smell the girl. This has been understood since her Reveal two years ago. However," another hard look punched Kagome square through the solar plexus, "she is incapable of what you speak of. Not even your training could endow the miko with the stealth and cunning necessary to bypass my security measures. Even should the heavens fall and the earth lose all sense of logic, even if she did manage the impossible and find herself in a position to stand before my father, she would be faced with an impossible task. And even should she succeed, Kiyoshinoedo would live on through me. My time is being wasted with fool's tales."

Kagura's answering laugh was not kind. "Think beyond your ego, Lord Sesshomaru." Acid dripped from each word. She hated being likened to an idiot. He had no idea who she was. What she was capable of. "I know what Higurashi is capable of. I also know we are not the only ones aware of it. That she would not make such an attempt is irrelevant. What others will use her for is another matter entirely."

"A ruse, then," he intoned darkly. "You think someone is planning to make use of the miko without her consent? That still does not answer to the aforementioned problems inherent in such an undertaking."

Kagome coughed into her hand. "Um, excuse me, but-" her brows furrowed slightly in confusion, "who did you hear this from, Headmistress? I know I'm not going to hurt anyone, let alone Lord Kiyoshinoedo! And," she sat up a little straighter on the velvet cushion, "I am not the smartest student here, but I'm not dumb either. I think I would know enough to avoid some kind of assassin scam, or whatever it is you think I am going to be used for." The High Lord of the Youkai Circle, title given to Sesshomaru's father, otherwise known as the Head of the Kiyoshinoedo House, High Constable of Japan, Head of the Central Asian State, and other assorted appellations equally as lofty, was safe from her!

Headmistress Ito met Kagome's determination with an aggrieved pinch to the bridge of her austere, pointed nose. "You do not have to be aware of the dealings to be made party to them, Higurashi. In point of fact, your innocence of such matters is what will cause you to succeed where all others have failed. Lord Kiyoshinoedo will never suspect you. Even should he be made aware of your potential threat to his health, the impossibility of the situation will dull his instinct for self-defense. Packaged in such an," Kagura waved briefly toward Kagome's general direction, making the miko uncomfortably aware of her wrinkled uniform and the wretchedly mangled strands of hair still half-pinned from gym class, "unassuming an individual as you are, he won't see the true threat until it is too late."

"Get to the point, Ito. If she is not the threat, merely the delivery girl, why am I here?" Impatient with the demoness' ability to draw out the players onto her personal stage, Sesshomaru ground his back molars.

"Does the Shikon No Tama ring any bells, Lord Sesshomaru?" Kagura asked silkily.

Kagome drew back in surprise. That had been destroyed years ago. She nodded as Lord Sesshomaru confirmed her thoughts out loud. Kagura smiled coldly.

"It was destroyed. That much is true. But such a bauble of indeterminate strength it was, Lord Sesshomaru. Don't you wonder how the Great Miko knew how to create it right at the moment of such severe stress? How, when others would be weak, even a powerful miko such as herself, the Great Miko knew exactly how to create the Shikon No Tama?" Kagura knew Sesshomaru had been pushed far enough. She would not wait to draw him out further. "She knew she could create the Shikon No Tama because she had already created a bauble of similar strength. It was not made from the strength of her spiritual power. It is her heart, Lord Sesshomaru, removed from her body before the last battle, containing all of her hopes, her fears for mankind, and most of all, her anger, as great as her power, at the youkai who had betrayed her into death. And it is here," Kagura sliced across her chest with a red nail parting the fabric's folds neatly but not breaking through skin, "inside the miko."

"That's impossible!" Kagome jumped to her feet, for once her usual respect for authority, particularly administrative authority, gave way to a temper not easily lit but always volatile. "I can't believe this, I won't!" She turned around to leave, reeling from the possibility that someone might actually believe such manure. The Headmistress had always been stern but fair. Kagome couldn't believe that she could level such incredulous accusations against her!

"Hold, miko."

Despite her indignation, Kagome stopped with her hand stalled half-way to the door's handle. When Lord Sesshomaru spoke in that hard tone, only a suicide risk ignored the danger.

"Despite the implausible accusations put about by the Headmistress, the matter can be resolved swiftly." Gone was the Lord. The High Constable was in charge. Even if the Lord knew the miko was no risk to his father, as the High Constable of Tokyo it was his responsibility to investigate the potential threat that a bauble of comparable strength to the Shikon No Tama could represent. It had been his father who had destroyed the loathsome creation an otherwise benevolent Great Miko had once given birth to. The joining between Kiyoshinoedo and the human princess, Izayoi, had calmed the rage and canceled the strength hidden inside with a single wish. A hanyou had been born, Sesshomaru reminded himself, but his half-brother was detestable enough with the power of the Shikon Wish granting him control of the unstable hanyou blood. A hanyou without that control running amok within his father's House would have been too much. The insult to his mother, the insult to himself as Named Heir to his father's House, could be ignored if it meant such a thing as the Shikon jewel could be kept from the hands of grasping humans and youkai. It was little comfort, but given his opinion on the matter had not been desired, it was the only salve available.

"How?" Kagome whispered, fear beginning to creep in to her voice as her legs began to shiver a bit about the knees. Headmistress Ito had gestured to the area around her heart. Even had the Great Miko been able to remove hers, Kagome knew herself to be nowhere near as powerful or skilled! Her fingers closed around the handle and yanked quickly, almost ripping the door off the roller as terror lent her a speed she had the misfortune to visit once or twice before.

As quick as she had moved, Lord Sesshomaru was faster. Feet lifted from the ground as he pulled her close, whipping her around as the last of the pins holding her hair up gave way to plink upon the hardwood floor. A sharp gasp fell from lips almost blue from the grip he held about the miko's larynx as a sharp claw cut into the flesh just above her heart with surgical precision. Kagome felt herself grow light-headed. A disconnected thought buzzed through the ringing in her ears as she wondered if it was raining inside, for surely it must be for the warmth dripping down the front of her shirt and burying itself close to the coldness of her chilled skin.

A faint blue glow pulsed from the tip of Sesshomaru's claws as he carefully removed his other hand from about the miko's throat and watched without reaction as she fell to the ground. She would recover. The poison in his claws could be controlled and would serve to cauterize the wound in short order. If she had not reacted as foolishly he might not have been so rough. He wasn't a lowly constable. He was High Constable. Her fear had been completely unjustified and insulted the oaths he had sworn to his father's House and the Circle which oversaw each High Constable and their duties.

He did not kill students. Not unless they needed killing.

The orb drew his attention as it warmed in his palm. Smaller than a pearl, clear and with no visible flaw, an almost perfect sphere had been nestled within the miko. It pulsed with power, alarming him with its strength.

"You are almost too cute to die, Sesshomaru."

The Lord drew in a sharp breath as the Headmistress withdrew the sharp dagger from between his ribs. It dripped with dark liquid. "The poison will hold you off long enough for me to get away. A gift from my _common_ father. Not even you are fully immune to his miasma." The miasma burned through his system, shutting down essential organs and sending the powerful youkai into an almost catatonic state. Almost. His legs twitched out from beneath him as his mind swirled with hate. He had been right. She was not to be trusted.

Kagome watched through glazed eyes as Lord Sesshomaru fell in a pile of long limbs and silver hair. Ito withdrew a small tattered cloth from her breast pocket and used it to pick the small sphere out from where it had rolled beneath his shirt. She examined it briefly before wrapping the sphere in the fabric and stowing it with the blue feather.

The Headmistress walked over to the prostrate girl and kneeled in the blood that had seeped from the deep but not mortally so wound on the miko's chest. "I didn't lie. Not entirely. You will be partly responsible for the Kiyoshinoedo's death. And no one ever suspected that you held his death within you, did they? Not even at your Reveal, when you allowed all that perfectly splendid power, useless to someone like you who doesn't properly understand how to channel let alone appreciate how to put it to good use, loose and surprised the High Lord himself into sponsoring your tuition to this school. Do you know how many miko apply for a spot at this academy?" Kagura paused to wipe a smear of blood off the fallen miko's face with the split edge of her vest. "I was almost afraid you wouldn't be powerful enough to merit an invitation. But you took care of that for me, as did his father."

Kagura glanced at the male she had so callously poisoned. "I could have loved him, but then, I suppose it would have never worked out. I could never respect a male stupid enough to trust me. I am destined to kill him, after all." A sly smile slid across the Headmistress' face. "I wonder how he will feel knowing that he made all of what will follow possible? By destroying the Shikon No Tama Kiyoshinoedo proved himself capable of removing the Great Miko's Heart from its resting place. It was a gamble to assume Sesshomaru would be able to do the same, but Father was right this time as well as he knew you held it. A bit of cloth salvaged from the Great Miko's grave, and now my father has a weapon of unimaginable power at his disposal." The Headmistress's gaze became razor sharp. "I did not want to do this, but in the end, I made a choice. I am not sorry for that, Higurashi. And I will not apologize for this, either." Kagura drew the long blade over Kagome and gripped it with both hands. "It will be quick."

Without thought or care for the blade, Kagome threw her hands up and caught the Headmistress' wrists. Kagura laughed. "Do you really think you will win this one, Higurashi? You can't even use your power against me. Your blood oath as a student here protects your headmistress well."

Not for the first time, Kagome considered the fact that some rules at the Academy needed to be revisited at a later date. Larynx still suffering from the brutal grip Lord Sesshomaru had used, Kagome didn't waste breath on a snappy comeback. The youkai above her bore down with awesome strength. Without a millimeter to spare, Kagome turned her head to the side just in time to save herself from being impaled through the eye. Scrambling for a hold on the dagger, her hand slipped and ripped into fabric. Ito reeled back as the blue bauble slipped from the torn kimono and unwrapped from the tattered fabric and fell on to the miko's blood-stained chest. The blue feather fluttered to land upon the sphere. With a bright flash, both disappeared from sight.

"My feather! What have you done, you ignorant little thief? Give it back!" Kagura screamed.

Unsure of what had just happened, Kagome kicked out, catching the youkai in the stomach. The Headmistress fell backward, landing on top of the slumbering Lord. The youkai screeched incoherently before launching herself at the miko. Kagome rolled, scraping her arm as she slid beneath the heavy desk. A heavy thump hit the top of the desk and Kagome knew the Headmistress had leapt on top. Breath coming in short gasps and pants, she hadn't a single idea how to make it out of the room alive. Just as she felt the wood begin to vibrate as the smell of youkai power filled her nostrils, Kagome heard Lord Sesshomaru growl. She turned toward the sound and immediately wished she hadn't.

Lost to the anger of his own monumental stupidity and the audacity of Kagura's betrayal, Sesshomaru could only remember one other time he had been as ready to toss all principals aside and rip in to the nearest fleshy object. The birth of his hanyou half-brother being the first, he was not well-acquitted with the ability to bring himself back under control. Seeing the one responsible for pushing him to such a state perched atop the desk like a demented carrion bird squawking about feathers with eyes as red as those jagged nails did not help. His canines pushed against the soft tissue of the inside of his lips, threatening to break through the thin line they were currently drawn into as his own amber eyes began to bleed crimson while rage pulsed within his youkai heart. The last of the miasma didn't stand a chance as it was swept away by the tide of blood strong enough to survive from the beginning of beginnings.

It was time to regroup. Even angry as she was, injured in a way they wouldn't understand by the loss of the feather, Kagura knew it was time to leave. "I will get it back, Higurashi. Do not mistake me!"

From beneath the desk Kagome heard the proclamation loud and clear. She screamed as the sound of breaking glass broke the thick rumble of growls growing in strength as they emerged from the chest of the fallen Lord. It was then that her power, free from the blood bond given at her Reveal to ensure students always respected the hierarchy of the Academy and didn't make threats against the staff even if under duress, a common enough problem for youkai and human student alike with mixed populations, broke free. The room filled in a flash with bright pink, shocking both miko and Lord with its ferocity.

Sesshomaru blinked back tears as his eyes watered from the power surge that had singed a lot more than just his peripheral senses. Fortunately it had served to put him back to rights. Unfortunately he would not be able to follow Kagura with a nose clogged with the scent of his own burning flesh and miko blood. "Higurashi," he called out, still blinded by the flash, "come here."

"Not in this lifetime, Lord Sesshomaru." Kagome knew better than to tell him 'no.' But after he had ripped in to her one time, she didn't trust him not to do it again. She was still bleeding, but the wound appeared to be closing as she looked down at it as best she could while still trapped beneath the desk.

Damn the girl. " I know what is there, and that is all I needed to know." The sphere had been undetectable whilst inside the miko. It was safer there than anywhere else he could think of at present, even given that certain unsavories were already aware of its presence and power. Should that change …

Kagome took a moment to contemplate her choices. There weren't many. Two, in fact. One, she could stay under the desk and hope for a miracle. Or two. She does what he said and walk over to the guy who had moments before tried to rip out her heart. She really needed to see someone about her terrible risk versus reward decision-making strategies, she decided as she found herself rolling out from beneath the desk and cautiously crawling on all fours to the figure still laid out on the floor. When she was within arm reach his blind eyes touched upon her face with scarily accurate precision.

"Pack your bags, Higurashi. Meet me back here. You have thirty minutes. Do not make me hunt you down."

The miko gulped. That hadn't been the Lord or the Constable talking. She had never seen this face before. And as she ran from the office and down the hallway where she had minutes before twirled a dandelion from the tips of her fingers, she decided thirty minutes might be ten too many. Since when did he use her name?

_Better make it twenty and not a minute over._


End file.
